Buckeyes Caruso and Harrigan Selected for NCAA Frozen Four Skills Challenge – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/15/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Ice Hockey
March 15, 2006
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State men’s hockey goalie Dave Caruso and women’s hockey forward Jana Harrigan were selected for the inaugural NCAA Frozen Four Skills Challenge. The event will be held April 7 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wis., in conjunction with the 2006 NCAA Men’s Frozen Four. The competitions will include puck control relay, fastest skater, hardest shot, rapid fire shooting and penalty shot.
The competition will be held in an East vs. West format with each team having six male position players, six female position players, two male goaltenders and two female goaltenders. An alternate list has been established in the event players have to withdraw from the competition because of other commitments, such as their team’s participation in the Men’s Frozen Four.
To be eligible, all players must have exhausted their collegiate eligibility and be nominated by their head coach. The players were selected by representatives from the American College Hockey Coaches Association, the NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Committee and the National Youth Sports Corporation.
Harrigan, a native of Burlington, Ontario, is a 2006 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award Top 10 Finalist and an All-WCHA first team selection. She led Ohio State in scoring for the third-consecutive season with 47 points and ended the year tied for seventh in the nation in scoring. She led the NCAA with six shorthanded goals, the second-most in a single season in NCAA history, and tied for eighth with 23 goals overall. Harrigan has the second-highest point total among active players in the NCAA with 160 points, which also is the Ohio State all-time school scoring record. During the 2005-06 season, she had a school-record 17-game point streak (Oct. 29-Jan. 22). Harrigan finished third in league scoring with 35 points (15g, 20a) in 28 WCHA games.
Caruso, from Roswell, Ga., was an honorable mention All-Central Collegiate Hockey Association selection. He ended the 2005-06 conference season with a 2.25 goals-against average and .912 save percentage. During the season, he tied the Ohio State single-season record with a league-best five shutouts and his 2.15 overall goals-against average is the third-best mark in program history. In his career, Caruso played in 96 games for the Buckeyes. He ends his career as Ohio State’s leader in goals-against average (2.07) and with the Top 3 single-season goals-against averages (1.97/2004, 2.14/2005, 2.15/2006). Caruso owns the single-season wins record (25 in 2005) and is tied for the career (11) and single-season (5 in 2006) shutout records. He is tied for third in career wins (52) and is ninth with 2,213 career saves.
